True copie of the court booke of the Governor and Society of the Massachusetts Bay in New England [manuscript]

by: Barlow, Samuel L. M. (Samuel Latham Mitchill), 1826-1889; Endecott, John, 1588?-1665; Hutchinson, Anne, 1591-1643; Hutchinson, Edward, 1613-1675; Hutchinson, Thomas, 1711-1780; Aspinwall, Thomas, 1786-1876

Publication date: 1628

Topics: Massachusetts Bay Company, Law

Collection: bostonpubliclibrary; americana

Digitizing sponsor: Associates of the Boston Public Library / Yale Class of 1955

Contributor: Boston Public Library

Language: English

A transcription of various records pertaining to the establishment and governance of the Massachusetts Bay Colony prepared between the years 1640 and 1646 by Thomas Lechford and others. This manuscript documents the pre-migration business of the Massachusetts Bay Company beginning in 1629, along with rulings of the General Court and the Court of Assistants of the Massachusetts Bay Colony through 1646.

Title from caption; dates of creation from Whitmore, W.H. A Bibliographical Sketch of the Laws of the Massachusetts Colony from 1630 to 1686.

According to Whitmore, the first 224 pages were prepared ca. 1640-1641 for Governor John Endecott and are in the hand of Thomas Lechford.

William P. Upham suggests that the remainder of the manuscript (or a significant portion thereof) is in the hand of Samuel Symonds (ca. 1595-1678). See: Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. 5 (Boston: The Society, 1902) pp. 144-146.

Marginal notes on pages 226 through 252 are in the hand of Governor Richard Bellingham. See: BPL Bulletin (vol. 9, no. 1: April, 1890) p. 207.

Including the first leaf, on the recto of which is an 18th-century inscription in the hand of Governor Thomas Hutchinson, the manuscript as currently constituted is comprised of 314 numbered and unnumbered pages, including blanks. Pages 135 and 136 are missing. Numbers 76-77 are omitted in pagination and 264 is repeated in pagination. Page 312 continues onto an unnumbered half-leaf, the verso of which is blank. Pages 5 and 6 are blank and there is a blank page between 223 and 224.

The manuscript passed under unknown circumstances to Edward Hutchinson (1613-1675), son of Anne Hutchinson. It was removed to England by Thomas Hutchinson (1711-1780) and returned to the United States in 1853 by Thomas Aspinwall, U.S. consul in London, who sold it to Samuel Latham Mitchill Barlow in 1864.

Purchased by the BPL in 1890 through the Barlow sale (catalog #2765).

The original document, from which this manuscript was copied, is now housed at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Archives and is known as: Court records, volumes 1-5 (CT0-1700x). For an extensive comparison between the documents, see: Records of the Court of Assistants of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, 1630-1692, vol. 2 (Boston: County of Suffolk, 1904).

Previous binding of full reverse calf housed separately with accompanying slipcase. Presently housed in a post binding with each leaf encapsulated in polyester film. Conserved in 2013 by Northeast Document Conservation Center.

Access to physical copy/copies by appointment only. Please contact Boston Public Library Rare Books and Manuscripts Department for further information.

Addeddate: 2013-07-25 12:22:34

Associated-names: Barlow, Samuel L. M. (Samuel Latham Mitchill), 1826-1889; Endecott, John, 1588?-1665; Hutchinson, Anne, 1591-1643; Hutchinson, Edward, 1613-1675; Hutchinson, Thomas, 1711-1780; Aspinwall, Thomas, 1786-1876